It’s been a pretty amazing year for music, with some of my favourite albums in recent memory released in the last 12 months. It was hard to narrow the list down to just 10 – in fact I already submitted my list to Drum Media for their polls and have changed it (again!) since then – and of course there are albums that I’ve only very recently heard and adored that would certainly have weaselled their way in if I’d heard them earlier. I hope next year will have just as many great things in store.

10. CONTRA – VAMPIRE WEEKEND

It’s pretty weird to think that I once proclaimed my hatred for this band, because I love this album to bits, especially since it very obviously nods to Graceland, by none other than my forever lover Paul Simon. This record is intelligently written and yet never comes across as condescending or pretentious, instead delivering punchy, catchy tunes that made for some of the year’s best awkward dancing.

9. THE SUBURBS – ARCADE FIRE

For me, nothing will ever beat Arcade Fire’s debut album Funeral. It was one of my favourite albums of the 2000s and was so perfectly written that I thought they wouldn’t be able to top it, ever. (Wait, I still think that). My first listen of The Suburbs took place on a drive to the city, so I was concentrating both on the road and the music, and my initial thoughts seemed to rest on the fact that it all sounded like one. very. long. song. Wrong! This is one of those albums that needs multiple listens to sink in, and once it does it’s pretty much instant. The webcast of the Madison Square Garden show back in August also helped turn my views on this album around, and ‘Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)’ is a really spectacular track. Still no Funeral, but pretty damn good, all things considered.

8. SWIM – CARIBOU

This was my first introduction to the music of Dan Snaith, better known as Caribou. It’s a massive sonic experience, with meticulously crafted sounds all smashing together into something unthinkably enormous, and a total departure from his last album, 2007′s Andorra. What I love so much about this album is that it works in two ways – whether you’re listening on the surface for something to dance to, or listening to peel away the many layers and admire the musicianship, it’s an incredible achievement. I was also very lucky to interview Dan a few months back and hearing the amount of work that he put into this record (over 600 demos!) made me appreciate it that much more. Not much of an electronic listener usually, but this album is strangely accessible despite its complexity.

7. BLISS RELEASE – CLOUD CONTROL

Blue Mountains wunderkinds Cloud Control blew everyone away this year with their long-awaited debut after many years on the live circuit. For a band so young, this is a startlingly mature album that translates superbly live (as adoring sold out crowds around the nation will tell you), and songs like ‘There’s Nothing In The Water We Can’t Fight’ and ‘Gold Canary’ have become staples in Australian music this year. Beautiful harmonies and textures. Really excited to see what these guys do next.

6. HEARTLAND – OWEN PALLETT

The artist formerly known as Final Fantasy made his first outing under his own name this year, and the result is this beautifully written and produced record that swirls with delicate orchestral arrangements. At his last Sydney show in December 2008, Pallett performed some of these songs, including ‘The Great Elsewhere’, and it was wonderful to see how those rough sketches transformed into fully realised tracks when listening to this album. There are also countless theories bouncing around about the themes of the record and a possible concept record-esque structure, and listening to it with that in mind made for a richer experience. Without sounding too fangirly, Pallett is really one of the finest musicians going around the indie circuit these days and criminally under-appreciated, considering the output he’s had not only with his own work but also performing and writing with and for others.

5. FORGIVENESS ROCK RECORD – BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE

Prior to this year, Broken Social Scene was one of the bands I didn’t really ‘get’. I listened to You Forgot It In People when it came out – I must have been 13 or 14 then – and it was just noise to me. I didn’t understand. But this record changed all of that – it was much more accessible and contained my favourite song of the year, ‘World Sick’, as well as a host of other songs that showed just how varied BSS’ style is. It’s not a completely consistent album and does have a few throwaway tracks, but overall it’s pretty solid and will hopefully open the band up to a wider audience.

4. PLASTIC BEACH – GORILLAZ

This album BLOWS. MY. MIND. How anyone could coordinate an ensemble of 70+ people is beyond me, and yet Mr Damon Albarn did it, and did it amazingly well. There’s the expected hip-hop fusion here, a dash of soul featuring the incomparable Bobby Womack, some dance, and one of the most unexpected tracks of the year (and my personal favourite) ‘On Melancholy Hill’, which Albarn cites as one of the best songs he’s ever written. How a band that started as a gimmicky cartoon turned into this is beyond me, but this is a record that needs to be heard.

3. WRITE ABOUT LOVE – BELLE & SEBASTIAN

But of course I was going to love anything that this band put out. B&S have been one of my favourite bands since I first heard them when I was 17, and this is the first record they released since I got into them (I fell in love with The Life Pursuit and went from there). Packed with guest stars (Carey Mulligan, Norah Jones) and the sweetest of tunes, this album is a great comeback for the band as they capitalise on their signature sound on some stellar tracks. Opener ‘I Didn’t See It Coming’ has been on repeat since the first time I heard it. Stoked out of my mind for their tour in March.

2. PIP – OTOUTO

I picked this up in the Drum Media offices for something new to listen to, having heard about this band before. It was completely different to what I thought it would be (I was expecting something a little folky) and quickly smashed its way to the top of my iTunes. It’s innovative but perfectly listenable and features some of the most creative decisions in Australian music this year, thanks largely to the talents of percussionist Kishore Ryan (also of Kid Sam and Seagull – my favourite Aussie musician for a long time). This album and band are not particularly well known but deserve to be over any other. One of the best national releases in a ridiculously long time.

1. HIGH VIOLET – THE NATIONAL

I haven’t had such an emotional connection with an album for a long, long time. Perfect in every way. I don’t even want to say anything about it because if you take a listen you’ll understand. I’m so glad that this band is finally getting the recognition they deserve, because there’s just not another group like this around right now. If you haven’t heard this album, do yourself a favour and listen. It just feels.

Honorable mentions:
The Age of Adz – Sufjan Stevens
American Slang – The Gaslight Anthem
Broken Bells – Broken Bells
Go – Jonsi
Teen Dream – Beach House
Together – The New Pornographers

Supported by: Bearhug

Built to Spill has an incredible fanbase in Sydney, and yet this was only their second visit here, the first being two years ago. Strangely enough, the Metro was curtained off only a few tiers back, meaning that the evening was a little emptier but also cosier.

Before the main act took the stage, local up-and-comers Bearhug warmed the joint up with a solid dose of indie rock. The five-piece’s last international support slot was for Broken Social Scene at the same venue back in August, and since then there’s been a definite visible and audible improvement – though they still seemed a little shy at the start, tonight’s set eventually swelled into a confident performance of tunes from their EP, To Anything, with some impressive triple guitar action and marked progress in Ryan Phelan’s vocals.

Taking to the stage before their scheduled time and getting right into it all, Built to Spill played a set that started off well enough but ended up being something that only the most vigilant fans would have come away stoked about. It’s difficult to fault the band musically – after almost two decades and seven full-length albums, they definitely know what they’re doing, creating a rock-hard wall of sound impossible to penetrate – but what was crucially missing from this performance was any sense of life outside of focusing just on guitars and drums and vocals and bass. So many extended jams – perfectly executed, yes, but somehow lacking any real enthusiasm or joy, all bleeding into an enormously long, enormously tedious song after a while.

There were treats, like the lovely ‘Twin Falls’ and its counterpart ‘Some’, and closer ‘Broken Chairs’ seeing maybe the most intense of the super solo jams for the night, but they really could have done with more interaction as the overarching feeling of the night was that there was an enormous barrier between audience and band that meant that we were only observing, not participating or sharing in any way, as the band uttered no words outside of ‘thanks’. For die-hard fans only it was an evening of cherished memories and songs, and certainly there was a lot of talent displayed throughout the night; but for the rest of us it was a fairly average night out that better acted as a showcase of Sydney’s best beards on the faces of audience members. At least they were engaging.

Set:
Traces
In The Morning
Kicked It in the Sun
Hindsight
The Plan
Joyride
Twin Falls/Some
Else
Distopian Dream Girl
Life’s A Dream
Wherever You Go
The Wait
Carry The Zero
—
Stop The Show
The Weather
Broken Chairs

Photo

The good folks over at 2threads.com and Altec Lansing have asked a bunch of music bloggers to share our ultimate summer playlists with you, the people of the internet! Though the weather here in Sydney hasn’t exactly been that of a perfect summer just yet, there is hope yet and I chucked together a list of 10 songs that make me want to go driving in my car, windows down, ice cream in hand and best friend in the passenger seat.

With the exception of ‘Lust For Life’ which was released in 2009, these songs were also all released this year so I think it’s a good way to round out what has undoubtedly been a fantastic 12 months of music. Here is the track listing, and if you click below you can download my mix for yourself – it’s a zip file, around 55mb and all tracks are in mp3 format. Remember that a good mix should always be listened to in the order that the mixer intended, so keep your paws off the shuffle button!

DOWNLOAD ME!

Supported by: De La Soul, Little Dragon

Despite a decade’s worth of groundbreaking music-making, this was the first time that Damon Albarn’s project Gorillaz had ever visited Australia – so it goes without saying that there was quite a bit of buzz leading up to the event, especially considering the Escape to Plastic Beach tour’s sensational reviews worldwide. Rumours of ex-Clash member and current Gorillaz bassist Paul Simonon contracting a stroke dampened the spirit a little but when it was reported that he was indeed alive and well, anticipation was at an all-time high for one of the most talked about live events of 2010.

After De La Soul’s Maseo introduced them, Swedes Little Dragon started proceedings with a mix that began unevenly, but spread out well through the remainder of the set. Singer Yukimi Nagano has a voice that is silky on record and equally so live, gliding through songs mainly from latest record Machine Dreams while accompanied by her three rhythm-perfect bandmates. The synth-heavy set ended too soon – there were some beautiful moments throughout, like the inclusion of ‘Never Never’ and the more upbeat ‘Looking Glass’, and Nagano really has excellent stage presence.

New York hip hop trio De La Soul took the stage next for a performance that was focused more on the audience than the group itself. Maseo, Posdnuos and Dave made sure that it was all about interaction and crowd fun, with songs like ‘Ring Ring Ring’ especially resulting in a raucous call-and-response from performers to spectators – even those who didn’t have a clue who De La Soul was. Splitting the room in half and arguing about who was the ‘better’ side (with profanities to boot), by the end of this set there wasn’t an arm in the house that wasn’t madly flailing – and when there was, the band was sure to call out the offending audience member for it. A truly fantastic performance that was enjoyed by hip hop fans and non-fans alike – this is what live music should be like.

And then there was Gorillaz – the biggest show on earth for a reason. It is beyond words, really beyond words, to see that many people from all walks of life standing on the same stage, making music together that rips across so many different genres. Walking on to ‘Orchestral Intro’, the set slipped into ‘Welcome To The World of the Plastic Beach’ featuring a giant Snoop Dogg on a screen, and the next two hours was unspeakably magic. Not only were there true legends present on stage (The Clash’s Paul Simonon and Mick Jones, Bobby Womack), but frontman Damon Albarn was charismatic and spot-on with all delivery, and the songs sounded just as pristine as they do on record. It is hard to single out highlights in a set that was nothing but, but hearing Womack sing on ‘Stylo’ was a treat and the harmonies on ‘On Melancholy Hill’ are just as sweet live as they are recorded. Of course the original cartoon members of the band were also present – Noodle, Murdoc, 2-D and Russell intermittently featured on the big screen, laughing at the ‘Gorillaz tribute band’ down below, and it was crazy to think that what started over 10 years ago as somewhat of a gimmick has become one of the most widely recognised and respected crossover acts on the planet.

A full string section complemented the tunes nicely, opening acts Little Dragon and De La Soul jumped on stage for their respective guest spots, and the inclusion of the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and the Syrian National Orchestra made for a very special evening indeed – especially seeing as Albarn befriended the Orchestra when Gorillaz performed their historic gig in Damascus. Watching Mick Jones dancing during the Arabic interlude was a real Kodak moment, too – dude is well into his ’50s but still has so much energy.

Throughout the evening the GORILLAZ sign in the background flashed different colours and animations adorned the screen, the most memorable of which played during ‘Dirty Harry’; the song which has seen the band often joined by real children’s choirs was this time accompanied by cartoon children pegging paper planes at each other and giggling while the stage came alive.

Albarn often reached out dramatically to adoring audience members, at one stage jumping down and running across the front row, and as the band continued to pump out the hits there was no audience member standing still with the cacophony unfolding.

Encoring with the expected bombastic bass of ‘Feel Good Inc’ and their first hit ‘Clint Eastwood’, Gorillaz surprised everyone when that wasn’t the song to close out the night, going instead for ‘Don’t Get Lost In Heaven’ and Demon Days’, closing the evening not on an electric note but a rather sweet one.

There hasn’t been another gig this year that had quite as much power as this one, and not another that incited such a crowd frenzy in the very best way. Given that Albarn has announced that the future of Gorillaz is uncertain, you’d have been a fool to miss out on this show if it was indeed not only the first, but also the last time they’ll ever be on our shores. Come on Christmas, we need the new album now!

Set:
Orchestral Intro
Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach
Last Living Souls
19/2000 (with Rosie Wilson)
Stylo (with Bobby Womack)
On Melancholy Hill
Rhinestone Eyes
Superfast Jellyfish (with De La Soul)
Tomorrow Comes Today
Empire Ants (with Yukimi Nagano)
Broken (with Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
Dirty Harry (with Bootie Brown)
El Mañana
Syrian National Orchestra piece
White Flag (with Bashy and Kano)
To Binge (with Yukimi Nagano)
DARE
Glitter Freeze
Punk
Plastic Beach
—
Cloud of Unknowing (with Bobby Womack)
Feel Good Inc. (with De La Soul)
Clint Eastwood (with Bashy and Kano)
Don’t Get Lost In Heaven
Demon Days

Supported by: Deep Sea Arcade, Step-Panther

Sydney three-piece Step-Panther is going places, spotless all the way through their set and sounding astonishingly polished for a group just on the rise. Whether they were playing loud Pavement-esque slacker jams or hazier beachy cuts or even yelping senselessly over frenetic drumming, there was a certain charm and refinement to this band’s live show that cannot be found on record. Closing with ‘Fight Like A Knight’, they certainly left the crowd wanting.

The thing that stood out the most about Deep Sea Arcade‘s performance is just how hard singer Nic McKenzie tried. The band was undeniably tight, with guitars, keys and drums melding faultlessly in staples like ‘Keep On Walking’ and ‘Lonely In Your Arms’, but McKenzie’s stage presence was distracting. Idolising Liam Gallagher is one thing, but trying to actually be him is entirely another – like the miracle child of Gallagher and Julian Casablancas, McKenzie lolled lazily against the mic stand with a contrived sense of swagger that just smacked of obnoxiousness. The band was musically solid with its ’60s-inspired tunes, but there are lessons to be learned about personality.

The curtains closed and all that was visible was a bunch of white roses peering out from between the cracks, until the first notes of ‘Ghost Mouth’ rang out and the sheets fell back to reveal the five members of Girls. The California band’s spaced-out tunes catapulted them to the top of every hipster’s playlist in the last year, so it was just a question of whether or not they would impress quite as much live. The first half of the set focused on the band’s more melodic tracks including note-perfect renditions of ‘Laura’ and ‘Lust For Life’; Christopher Owens’ voice was clearer live than it was on record, and newer songs like Heartbreaker really shone.

And then shit got real.

Lights began to flicker and songs like ‘Big Bad Mean Motherfucker’ and ‘Morning Light’ drowned the venue in their thrashy lo-fi noise, and though it was incredibly intense, at the peak of it all it became monotonous in its madness. They slowed down again with ‘Carolina’ before coming back for a muddled encore including ‘Lauren Marie’ and ‘Life in San Francisco’, after which Owens stood at the microphone looking confused before muttering his thanks and dashing off. It was a show that started with an incredible colour-soaked bang but peaked too soon, ultimately impacting less than it could have.

This has been around the internet since the beginning of the year apparently, but I’ve only seen it tonight and am having the biggest heart palpitations ever. Paul Simon is, of course, my favourite songwriter of all time, and The Tallest Man On Earth’s The Wild Hunt was one of the best folk records this year. I didn’t listen to it as much as I should have, so I don’t think it warrants top 10 albums of the year status for that reason alone, but it did accompany me on cold nights in Sweden – the country of its origin – and there are many nuances to it which I just loved.

So here’s the greatest thing the internet has ever shown me (other than this, of course) – The Tallest Man On Earth and Jaw Lesson covering ‘Graceland’ at a music festival in the Netherlands earlier this year. He just has such an unbelievable voice and really hits the exact tone and mood of the song, and makes it sound totally new again – even though I’ve listened to the original song so many hundreds of times. Wonderful cover, and check out how hesitant Megafaun are to follow the performance up!

Not that this is unusual for me lately, but I’ve been in such a slump lately. Coming down from the trip is harder than I expected; it’s been a month and I’m still dreaming of London and being depressed because I’m indoors all the time with no job prospects and all I do is listen to music which is good but not good because it’s making me terribly lethargic. And then last night I found a CD in my car that I made when I was 13, and this song was on it and it took me right back.

1. Flavor of the WEAK! WHAT AN AMAZING PUN!
2. There are some songs that you can go for years and years without hearing, and yet the second you put it on it’s like you heard it just 5 minutes ago. The words are still fresh in my mind and I can still sing along to them exactly. Makes me feel free.
3. It’s just a really rad song okay.
4. STACY JONES WAS A DREAM BOAT.

Very cool video from Brisbane band Montpelier for their latest single ‘Last Boat’, lifted from their upcoming EP. The track itself, built on floaty synths and guitars, shows off frontman Greg Chiapello’s sweeping vocals as it ascends to soaring heights and brushes several moods, ending in a defined calm. But seriously, check out the video. It’s paper stop motion made by Sydney’s Paul Andrew Rhodes and is one of the more original clips coming out of a local band of late. Definitely worth a watch and listen.

And if you want to check the band out live, their next shows in Sydney are as follows:
Saturday January 8 @ Raval with Ngaiire, Husky & Vorn Doolette, 8pm, $15 at the door
Sunday January 9 @ Dr Pong with The Spirits, FREE
Friday February 18 @ MUM World Bar, FREE

Free download – Last Boat.mp3

Canadian MC Richard Terfry, better known as Buck 65, made his way to Australia back in September for some shows and I caught up with him ahead of them. Our chat actually leaked into email territory because he just had so much to say! The gigs have been and gone now, but in this interview – done back in July – he talks about his new project 20 Odd Years and two decades in the biz.

(Prefer full article format? Head to page 38 of the online edition of Drum Media #1026 to see my write up as it appeared in the magazine.)

How are you? Where in the wide world are you at the moment?

I’m fine thanks. I am in Toronto, I’m actually laying on my bed in my house right now.

Tell me a bit about your new album.

Well, the series I guess – we’ll call it a series, I don’t know what else to call it – it’s five EPs and we’re calling the series 20 Odd Years which is a reference to two things. It comes from a line of a song called ‘Gee Whiz’, which I recorded with a guy named Nick Thorburn from a band called Islands, but it also refers to the fact that this year is the 20th year since I basically made my debut, if you will. And so this year’s basically dedicated to that and we’re just spreading out all of this year’s activities, including the release of new music across the whole year. And so with the music itself, I basically wanted to create a bunch of music that was more melodic than anything I’d ever done before, and really the only word I had in my head before I recorded was “melody”. I wanted to dig a little deeper into that. And so I turned to a lot of my friends, especially vocalists, because it’s an area where I’m definitely very limited, but there were some things that I wanted to do in the songs so I guess one thread that really runs through all of it is that you hear a lot of other voices.

How did you decide how to divide the songs between EPs?

It’s really difficult to explain and it probably would only really make sense to me, but I can tell you that during the process I had a good handful of songs, I would say maybe 12 or 13 songs ready to go, and I knew that as the process was starting I would continue to make songs to set out the direction of the EPs. We were doing 4 songs per EP so that would mean 20 songs altogether. So even as I got started, I would continue to be recording new songs and as for what would go on each EP, to me that’s the most difficult decision to make and I really laboured over that for a long time. But I think basically the way that decision-making process worked was really more about keeping certain things separate more than wanting to group certain things together. So in my mind if there were two songs that had something in common, it meant that they had to be separated and as far apart as possible. So every time I saw songs that needed to be separated, I’d put them in different groups and somehow, through that demented process, the groups began to form on their own and I did a little bit of shuffling so that each one felt like a nice self-contained unit and had its individual strengths and so on, but it’s a pretty esoteric process, a real source of madness, I think.

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